A grateful AmericanEarly one morning a few weeks after my wife passed away, I was all alone sitting in my easy chair and got to thinking about the future and the days that lie ahead. All of a sudden the emotion came over me of being so grateful for all the good things I had going for me. First, I was grateful for the extra months the Lord gave me with Viola before He called her home and the joy of taking care of her, as I am sure she would have done for me. In c...

Baby VeronicaThis week, Baby Veronica finally went home — for good. She was adopted at birth by a South Carolina couple who raised her until she was just over 2 years old. Then she was sent back to live with her biological father, Dusten Brown, who had signed away his parental rights but then sought to invalidate the adoption because his tribe had not been notified of it. In June, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Indian Child Welfare Act — th...

Only propaganda is ‘good journalism’?Why are liberals in so much denial about liberal bias in the news? Why do they think they’re bending over backward to be “objective” doing that which Republicans see as partisan activism? Daniel Froomkin of the Huffington Post — formerly of The Washington Post — suggests an answer. He is exactly the kind of liberal agitator in the newsroom who wants every news story to be a blazing editorial. Every reporter must divide the world clearly betwee...

Why the president looks so exhaustedBarack Obama looks exhausted these days. He looks about as tired, in other words, as the nation feels. He knows this. At a speech Saturday, he said that people are always telling him to “hang in there.” “Don’t worry about me!” Obama said. “I am still fired up ... because I still see the work that needs to be done!” The audience cheered and applauded his old slogan from 2008 — “Fired up! Ready to go!” — the old fire in the belly, the old Obama....

UA’s answer: Hire another administratorThe first positive step taken by the University of Arkansas in response to financial woes created by its Advancement Division was to create and fill a new administrative position to exercise “full budget control.” In the world of higher education administration the answer to every problem seems to be to hire another administrator. Timothy J. O’Donnell, a utilities financial executive, will become associate vice chancellor for budget and financ...

High risk, low yieldThis has been the worst time, politically, for President Barack Obama since he took office. Recent polls reveal that public confidence in both his domestic and foreign policies has been falling, amid revelations about their defects and dangers. Even people who once supported and defended him have now turned against him. There have even been rumblings against Barack Obama in the Congressional Black Caucus and among labor unions that were a majo...

United People’s Co-opSeveral months ago this column featured some research on the history and origins of the regional organization, ARVAC and the larger, national VISTA program that helped to create programs such as ARVAC. Created in 1965, the VISTA program was part of President Johnson’s War on Poverty and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Throughout the state, Arkansans were experiencing intense poverty, especially in rural areas. Many were suffering form tr...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Coach Kelley for CongressSome occupations should be represented more in Congress: Accountants because they make the numbers add up; engineers because they make things work with quiet competence and efficiency; NFL referees because they follow the rules and do the right thing regardless of the noise around them. Kevin Kelley deserves his own category. The head football coach at Little Rock’s Pulaski Academy high school almost never punts, even on fourth down deep in hi...

A political ode to fallThe autumnal equinox arrives today, but the chill in the September sun has come early to Washington. The cicadas are still singing, but won’t be for long. The days are getting shorter and darker. The garden knows it, too; the black-eyed Susans have only their black eyes left. The yellow peaches from West Virginia don’t know change is coming. They have harvest time left, the farmer told me. That made me glad. I love summer and hate to see it go...

Hope to keep people aliveLITTLE ROCK — September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in Arkansas and across the nation. Too many families are shattered by this painful act, and we all need to work together to make suicides a less frequent end to life. Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of all deaths in the United States. It is estimated nearly 5 million Americans have lost a loved one to suicide. In Arkansas, 400 suicides took place last year, ranking the state 15th....

Will your day be rainy, sunny or a bad stormy?CONWAY — If you are old enough to remember the days when you were driving down the road and would come to a car or truck pulled over to the side, the hood up, and steam bellowing from the radiator, you will certainly relate to what I want to share with you today. Before the days of modern technology, cars and trucks had a radiator to hold water to keep them cool and a radiator cap with a thermostat to monitor the temperature. If the radiator g...

Smart power versus serendipitySerendipitous events do not a strategy make. Watching events surrounding Syria unfold the last few weeks, and the Obama administration and media’s cheers of victory these last few days, is proof that our current leadership does not understand the difference between happenstance and strategy. A quick review of events: the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government on civilians; tough talk by President Barack Obama; an administration push ...

Business leader Hill runs for the HouseHouse District 35 stretches from the northern part of Little Rock out past Pinnacle Mountain. Like at least a third of the state’s House seats, it will have no incumbent in next year’s elections. It would not be worth singling out except for this: Its announced Republican candidate is French Hill, one of the state’s top-tier business figures. There are no current legislators who fit that description. In fact, there usually aren’t. Hill’s name ...

Corporatizing critters — from cuteness to crueltyBoth the old and new media agree on this: If you need a story that’s guaranteed to be wildly popular — go with animals. “Kute kittens,” for example, are surefire winners, as is the entire p-group: puppies, porpoises, penguins and polar bears. And don’t forget baby chicks, goats and other farm animals — they can be awfully cute and cuddly, too. One group that’s noticed this is corporate America, and some of the biggest corporations have jumped ...

Elections that matterYou may not have noticed yesterday, but an important election took place in Arkansas that is likely to affect you in a direct way. Unfortunately, you probably heard little about it and odds are that you did not cast a ballot. I am referring to the local school board elections that take place in Arkansas on the third Tuesday of September. These local officials often have a direct impact on the lives of the community. If you have children or gra...

Political Animals Club gets off to good startA real debate threatened to break out near the end of the inaugural meeting of the Northeast Arkansas Political Animals Club Friday. The featured speaker, former Congressman Asa Hutchinson, who is running for governor again, had made the requisite Republican castigation of “Obamacare” before opening the floor to questions. After two or three about the teacher insurance issue, one senior citizen stood up and said: “I am extremely disappointed i...

State board allows districts to are staffThe state board that licenses private security firms voted to allow 13 Arkansas school districts to train and arm staff. Many of the schools are in rural areas where there is a relatively long response time for officers from the closest police department or sheriff’s office. Superintendents of the schools said it was cheaper to train and arm existing staff than to pay for officers from private security firms. The vote by the Arkansas Board of ...

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Sen. Michael LamoureuxThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

School funding issues returnLITTLE ROCK — A looming hike in premiums for 47,000 teachers and a lawsuit pending before the state’s highest court are reminders that six years after the end of the Lake View case, Arkansas may not be finished with its school funding battles. After a legislative session that was dominated by health care, tax cuts and social issues, lawmakers are facing the possibility of returning to the state Capitol for the first school-related special sess...

Growing wild mint: The perfect versatile addition to any herb gardenThis past spring I found a large patch of wild mint growing out in Harkey Valley in Yell County. With its square stalks, pointed leaves, and tall spikes of purple flowers, the plant stood over two feet tall. It blanketed a large patch of the former pasture, growing up past the top row of the rusty barbed wire fence. In the late afternoon sun the pale flowers seemed to glow. I picked a few of the leaves and crushed them in my hand, breathing in...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Insurance solutions for school employeesLITTLE ROCK — Amid all the current changes in American and Arkansas health care, we are also working to address the rising costs that have helped create a serious problem for an important segment of our society. In this case, the issue has been brought into focus by the plight of the Public School Employee Plan, which provides insurance for teachers and other school-district employees. The structure of the Plan has been a concern for many year...